475 years ago today, Catherine Howard was beheaded, after being found guilty of adultery while married to Henry VIII. Historians argue over whether the queen was really guilty, or a merely bubble-headed object manipulated for political gain. The verdict on that question is still out. I have a tenuous connection with Catherine Howard, as I […]
Was She Guilty? Or Was She A Victim? Read More »
As Christmas Day falls on a Monday, this year I get to say Merry Christmas on the actual day. May you and yours have a wonderful day, eat far too much, regret it as usual, and relax with your loved ones and wonder where the year went. And because my blog wouldn’t be
A young Queen Elizabeth on a one pound note, circa 1976The second season episodes of the most expensive TV series ever produced, The Crown, which cost a mere $130M, just dropped on Netflix a few days ago. It’s interesting timing, because today is the 81st anniversary of the day that Britain’s King Edward VIII renounced
Auspicious Timing? Read More »
Today, 297 years ago, Captain Jack Calico was captured by the British Navy, and later hanged in Port Royal, Jamaica. Wikipedia’s entry on the man is pretty light, but it did include the usual “in popular culture” list…which was oddly missing any reference to Jack Sparrow of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. That raised my
Anyone NOT see the parallels, here? Read More »
I remember reading Asterix comics when I was a kid, and being pretty uninterested. I had to grow up, in all ways, to really appreciate the origins of Asterix, and the history that inspired the character. He was a little Gaulish warrior, running around Europe having adventures–that much I remember. When I was reminded of
Screwing Up Is A Good Thing Read More »
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you might have noticed I’m a little bit interested in volcanoes. I wrote about Mt. St. Helens and Vesuvius and I’ll probably get around to marking their anniversary again some day, too. To the western world, these are probably the most widely known active volcanoes. The
The Deadliest Volcano in the World Read More »
History is a really cool place to wander. You learn all sorts of interesting facts and you can make connections between previously unrelated events, people and places. So what has me excited now? The French Foreign Legion. In a lot of Victorian romances, the disgraced hero or the bad boy would escape their soiled reputation
French by Spilled Blood Read More »
All Of Time And The Whole World, Too When you’re writing time travel novels, deciding where and when in history your main characters are going to travel back to can be an overwhelming decision. After all, the author can pick any time in history — that’s about twelve thousands years of human history, right there.
All Of Time And The Whole World, Too Read More »
Lá Fhéile Pádraig = “the Day of the Festival of Patrick” — Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland, which is where the wearing of the green comes into it. (Also, green beer. ugh.) Patrick was a Roman British man who was enslaved and taken to Ireland, where he found God. He escaped Ireland